In my Italian family (full Sicilian on my dad's side; Northern and Sicilian on my mom's side), manicotti is a staple meal for Easter dinner. Ever since I can remember, my mom, cousins, aunt and I have gone over to my grandma's house on Holy Saturday to help her prepare all of the delicious food to be served the next day. Unfortunately, she passed away in 2011 leaving my mom and I to host Easter Sunday dinner at our house. Recently in 2018, after my mom finished preparing all the trays full of not allergy safe manicotti, a thought popped into her head. "Why have we never tried to make egg free manicotti for you?". It was then that we decided to nix the store bought manicotti pasta shells and experiment with something new! In case you did not know, a regular manicotti consists of flour, water, and many eggs to make a crepe that is then rolled with either a meat or cheese based filling. I am excited to share with you my amazing recipe for eggless m which is any person with food allergies' dream meal on an Italian Easter Sunday.
Serves: 8 manicotti crepes
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour, you can also swap this flour for a flour of choice
1/2 cup water
2 egg replacers (I use EnerG egg replacer)
Directions:
Heat a ceramic 8 inch crepe pan over medium heat.
Make the "eggs".
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend on high to make an airy and light batter. Air bubbles should form in the batter once blended.
Pour batter into the pan coating the bottom with a thin layer. Start by pouring the batter on one side of the pan then tilting the pan in a circular motion so that the batter coats the bottom evenly.
Cook the crepe for 1-2 minutes or until the edges of the crepe begin to curl up. Turn over with spatula and cook the other side.
Lay the cooked crepes out onto a floured board.
Roll the crepe with your filling of choice. For a traditional manicotti, I used mashed up homemade meatballs and tomato sauce.
Serve hot or by warming them first in the oven for 20 minutes at 350°F.
Tip: These manicotti store well refrigerated for about 2-3 days. You can also prepare a couple of trays before hand and freeze them until needed.
Happy Easter, loves (Buona Pasqua, amori)!